It’s a Family Thing

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In 1979 at Hooks High School, Coach Steve Morris and Coach Jason Boston’s paths crossed for the first time. Coach Morris was a post on the varsity basketball team at Hooks. The head coach at the time was Coach Boston’s father, Jerry Boston.

“I grew up watching him [Morris] play,” Boston said. “I was a gym rat and a coach’s kid so that’s how we first met each other.”

Jerry Boston retired from coaching Basketball in 1981, when Jason Boston was in 5th grade. Boston went on to play on the Varsity Basketball team all four of his high school years. His senior year a new assistant coach joined Hooks’ coaching staff, a young, fresh-out-of-college Coach Morris.

“He was a good basketball player and shooter in high school,” Morris said. “Everyone teases him all the time about him never passing the ball and shooting a lot, and most of it’s true.”

Under Morris’ and head coach Gage’s reign, the team had an extremely successful career that would be remembered for years to come. Coach Morris continued coaching at Hooks until 1989.

“It was by far the best season of all four of my years on varsity with them two coaching us,” Boston said. “I wish I would’ve been able to play for them all four of my high school years instead of just my senior year.”

Fast forward. Coach Boston graduated college in 1991 with a degree in Business Education. Coach Boston decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a basketball coach.

When Coach Boston first began his coaching career, Morris was working with Coach McManus for Hooks’ basketball team.

Eventually, Coach Morris and Coach McMannus moved on to Texas High to coach together.

But Morris later moved on to coach at Pleasant Grove, and Coach Boston took the job of head girls’ basketball coach at Texas High, which led to his working alongside Coach McManus, where he picked up strategies and lessons along the way. Because of Boston and Morris’s close working relationship with McManus, they both have similar views on basketball.

Now that Boston and Morris coach the Pleasant Grove girls’ basketball team, this proves to be a big help.

“We have a lot of the same coaching philosophies because we learned them from the same guy,” Morris said. “It has been a real smooth transition.”

And the Boston-Morris family coaching tradition doesn’t end there. Morris’s youngest daughter, sophomore Madi Morris, is playing on varsity for the second year in a row.

“At times playing for my father can be really fun because he can see me improve andget better as a basketball player,” Madi Morris said. “But sometimes it can be very stressful because he pushes me harder and expects more from me.”

For Madi, there are two people pushing her to be her best.

“It’s a family thing and both me and Coach Morris are big on family,” Boston said. “So it makes sense. My dad would train Coach Morris, Coach Morris would coach me, and I would coach Madi.”

This story was originally run in the print edition. This is an extension of the story by collaborative effort between TheEdgeOnline.com and PGTV.